Rob Reddy

Combining jazz and Middle Eastern music is hardly a new idea; Duke Ellington did it on his original 1930s recording of "Caravan," and Middle Eastern music was certainly a major influence on John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, and other modal innovators. Nonetheless, jazz/Middle Eastern fusion still has a lot of possibilities, and Rob Reddy shows us some of them on However Humble. Recorded in 2000, this CD finds him leading his group Quttah, a probing, Middle Eastern-minded outfit that includes Reddy on soprano and alto sax, Jef Lee Johnson on guitar and electric sitar, Charles Burnham on violin and mandolin, Rufus Cappadocia on cello, Dom Richards on upright bass, and Hearn Gadbois on the dumbek and the zarb (both of which are traditional instruments). Reddy likes to see Western and non-Western instruments interact; on However Humble, the sax and the guitar are perfectly at home with the dumbek and the zarb as well as the electric sitar. India, not Saudi Arabia or Syria, is the home of the sitar; so you shouldn't think of Quttah as a group of Arabic purists -- it isn't supposed to be. Quttah's music is an East/West hybrid in which jazz, Middle Eastern, and North African elements come together -- and if the electric version of an Indian instrument is used, that only adds to the intrigue. Although avant-garde, However Humble isn't about chaotic, atonal screaming; Quttah, which favors an inside/outside approach, is very musical. Reddy and his sidemen know exactly what they are doing on this risk-taking, evocative CD. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide